Fortunate Reprieve
by OmnipresentNuance
Summary: As a result of believing his paranoia about his bad fortune is getting on his family's nerves, Lincoln slips away and seeks some alone time in the woods. When they find out he's missing, Luna volunteers to track him down while also hoping to knock some sense into her brother about said fortune.


**Hey, how's tricks? Yep, you're getting two stories from me on the same day! I'm sure you're all thrilled.**

**In case anyone's curious, I've completed or have come close to completing a number of these stories as many as days, weeks or even months well in advance, so if you're wondering why they'll be coming at a fairly quick clip this month, that's why. It's not like I'll uploading something each day, as I'll occasionally leave a couple days of space between them for everything to stew and marinade. You could say I'll be giving you all a..._reprieve,_ if you will! Get it?! But seriously, let's get down to brass tacks.**

**Here we have another somewhat small alteration of another episode, this time "Raw Deal", a fairly divisive one as I've come to observe. You either find it funny because of Lincoln's paranoid antics or find it a distressing watch because of said antics. Personally, I'm right down the middle. I don't think it's a bad episode at all, but it can be worth wondering what it would be like if one of Lincoln's sisters did decide to try getting a little bit of sense put into him over everything, which is why we're here now. Yes, I know _who _I chose for the job can be seen as kind of predictable, but I'll explain everything at the end and then some.**

**We all good? Simpatico, even? Alright then, onward with the story!**

_**The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.**_

* * *

Family trips are often a rarity with the Loud family. With thirteen family members, a constrained budget and a whole host of other things going on in their professional, academic and personal lives, time for any sort of trips was few and far between. Until today, that is.

Right now, the family was in a middle of their first proper trip together in some time at Grand Venture State Park for a day of fun and frolic. For the most part, everyone was having a great time.

That is, except for Lincoln.

During the car ride en route to the park, Lincoln's goth-obsessed younger sister, Lucy, decided to read out fortunes for all of her siblings. While most everyone got a fairly positive reading, or at least an intriguing one, the one Lucy produced for Lincoln wasn't so pleasant. It had ominously predicted that his day was going to end in tragedy. Since then, Lincoln had become extremely paranoid and on edge, believing some kind of unfortunate incident befalling him was just around the corner, and with each subsequent fortune of his sisters' coming true, it made it more certain to him that something bad would happen at any moment. Even Lisa, who initially started as a major cynic towards Lucy's fortune telling prowess, had her own fortune of making a major scientific discovery come true, and had spent most of the day at the ranger's station showing said discovery off.

As a result of each of the fortunes becoming truthful, Lincoln refused to take part in just about every activity his family took part in as he only ever worried about his dire fortune all day long.

Currently, the family was wrapping up a satisfying midday meal before venturing off to their next activity in their itinerary. However, before heading off, the kids' parents, Lynn Sr. and Rita, had noticed the absence of Lincoln among them

"Hey, where's Lincoln?" Rita wondered, a small tinge of worry in her voice

"I'm not sure." Lynn Sr. said, just as puzzled, "Girls, do any of you know where your brother is?"

For the most part, the girls either didn't respond or simply shrugged, but one among them perhaps had an idea, that being the rock music enthusiast and third oldest of the siblings, Luna.

"You know, I think I may have seen him go a little bit into the woods right over there." Luna said while she pointed in the general direction where she thought he went, "I'll go get him for you."

She stood up from the picnic table that she and her family had been using for their meal break and headed on over to retrieve her little brother. But before going any further, she paused and turned back over to her family.

"You know, while I'm at it, I'll probably have a little talk with him about this fortune stuff, just to perhaps convince him that he's getting all worried over something that might just be totally bogus." Luna told them.

"Good luck with that." Lucy stated in a stoically sarcastic sense, "Besides, my fortunes can't be bogus if every single one of them has come true so far. The cards simply don't lie after all."

"Well, regardless if they're really true or not, I doubt you'll get through to Lincoln that much anyway, Luna. After all, he's literally been a complete hypochondriac the entire day, so I doubt whatever you'll say will convince him otherwise." Lori said somewhat dismissively.

"Yeah, he was so out of it that he thought there would be quicksand somewhere!" Lynn said unimpressed.

"Don't you remember he also thought Dad was some kind of swamp monster?" Lana pointed out

"And he thought some butterflies were 'killer bats' as he called them." Lola added with a scoff, "A little over dramatic if you ask me."

"Not to mention he actually thought he could get struck by lightning on a day where there isn't even a cloud in the sky! Though if that were to happen, it would certainly be a _shocker!_" Luan joked, and followed with her signature laughter, "Get it? But seriously, Lincoln shouldn't be taking things like that at face value."

"You know, as much as I hate to admit it, you guys are right. Even I was getting a little tired of Lincoln making such a big deal over everything. It's honestly gotten rather annoying." Leni admitted reluctantly.

Luna let out an annoyed sigh, "Hey now, I don't think you need to be that overly harsh about our bro. Sure, I'll be the first to admit that he might've been a bit of a pain so far today, but that doesn't mean I don't want to try reaching out to him."

"Well, why do you suddenly even care about how he feels anyway?" Lola asked.

"Yeah, if anything, you were just as indifferent over him as we were throughout the day." Lori added, "What changed between then and now?"

"I don't know, dudes, and I'm not really sure if I have a good explanation for that right now." Luna said, sighing once again, "But you're right, I was just like all of you, not really giving a toss about his worries which are likely rooted in nothing. Still, I don't think that means we should just dismiss his concerns out of hand and I want to at least talk things out with him so he can mellow out and then finally start having fun like we have been. Seems like something worth doing if you ask me."

With that being said, Luna resumed in finding Lincoln and hoping to make him realize he may have been getting all worked up over nothing.

About a couple minutes in, Luna wasn't having much luck in finding her little brother. She was tempted to call out for him, but she thought against it, because due to the state of paranoia he must still be in, it might've only heightened such sensations inside of him.

"Where is that little dude?" She wondered out loud.

However, just as she said that, Luna grinned a little as she looked over in the distance to see Lincoln sitting on a large tree stump with his back facing away from her. As she began quietly approaching him, she started hearing him muttering indistinctly, yet fearfully. He also appeared to be trembling slightly as well, making Luna get a little bit more worried about him.

As she was just right behind him, Luna reached over to her brother and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Lincoln?"

Upon feeling the contact on his shoulder, Lincoln yelped and fell off the stump.

"Whoa, dude, it's just me." Luna said to him calmly.

Lincoln looked up at his sister and grinned nervously, "Oh, hi there, Luna. What are you doing here?"

"I was coming to get you, little bro. The rest of our fam are ready continue on and I wanted to make sure to retrieve you first before we shove off." She replied while offering up her hand to help him up.

Lincoln sighed as he grabbed onto Luna's hand so she could pull him back up to feet. As soon as he was up though, he sat back down on the stump while a distressed look came across his face.

"I don't think I'm ready to come along yet." He said depressingly, "I've pretty much wrecked this trip anyway."

"Huh? What do you mean, Linc?" Luna asked in concern, kneeling down in front of him.

"I think you know why, Luna." Lincoln responded, lowering his head down in shame, "It's all about that fortune Lucy told me earlier. I've been so worried over all the bad things that might happen to me that I bet I've pretty much gotten on everyone's nerves. Not to mention the possibilities in my mind for what could happen to me are getting worse. Like, what if I fell off a cliff? Or had a tree fall on me? Or if I got mauled by a mother bear because I got to close to her cubs? Or what if I had potentially drowned when we we're at the lake? Or what about…?"

Lincoln didn't finish his next thought as he began to hyperventilate. Getting more troubled over her brother's worrisome condition, Luna put one of her hands on his shoulder and used the other to lift his head up to make him look at her.

"Lincoln, calm down!" She said, trying to get him to relax, "Try to take a chill pill, okay, dude?"

Trying to follow his sister's advice, Lincoln attempted to take a pair of deep breaths. But even after that, he still had a sense of anxiety flowing through him.

"I'm sorry about that, Luna. It's just..." He tried to say, but stopped himself short as he resumed trembling.

Wanting to do something to alleviate him, Luna stood up and sat right next to Lincoln before she then put her arms around him in a comforting hug. He allowed the side of his head to rest right on his sister's chest as he sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry, Luna, but why am I letting this stupid fortune get to me?" Lincoln asked sadly.

"Well, I was actually hoping to talk to you about that, bro..." Luna said softly, "Because if you ask me, you've been getting all worked up over nothing."

Lincoln agreed with that sentiment woefully, "I've thought so too, and you're probably right. But I've gotten so worked up anyway that I still feel so scared about something bad happening and I don't know how to stop feeling that way. I don't want to feel this way, Luna, I really don't!"

He released a strained whimper and came off like he was coming close to fully breaking down. In response, Luna hugged her little brother just a little bit more tighter and gently ran her hand up and down the length of his back to soothe him some.

After holding him closely for a few moments more, Luna parted away slightly from Lincoln while still maintaining an arm around his shoulders.

"You know, here's a way of looking at it, Lincoln." She started saying, "Have you ever though that your fortune may have almost come true?"

Lincoln looked up at his big sister with some confusion, "Wait, what? I don't understand."

Luna rubbed one of her brother's shoulders affectionately, "Look, I'm not sure if I buy into this whole fortune stuff myself, but for the sake of it, let's say that it is legit. Now, Lucy claimed your day was going to end in tragedy, right?"

"Yeah." Lincoln answered with a small nod.

"Well, I think what might be going on is that your act of getting so worked up over thinking something bad's gonna happen is itself the tragedy." Luna explained further, "So though no fault entirely of your own, you accidentally ended up making your own day go badly by not doing anything with the rest of us, and if you failed to do anything fun in the end, wouldn't you consider that a tragedy in a sense?"

Lincoln pondered her explanation for a moment before think that it indeed may be the case.

"You know, maybe you're right, Luna. But at the same time, it kind of makes me feel dumb that I took things this far already and missed out on so much because of it." He said, sighing and looking down once more.

"Oh, don't feel that way, little bro." Luna told him in disagreement, "And by the way, what you said earlier about how this might've gotten on our family's nerves? I don't think that's true either. I mean, sure, before I went off to find you, most of them started rattling things off about what you were paranoid over, but I'd like to think it was because they were worried about you not participating in the fun with us, not because they were genuinely upset at you. At least that's what I hope, but I can't be totally sure."

She pulled away from Lincoln a little more and then made him look at her.

"So anyway, why don't you buck up, turn that frown upside down and let those bad vibes go? It'd do you some good, Lincoln, and I would love to see that, too." She said while patting him on the back.

Letting out another breath of air, Lincoln finally let a smile form as a result of Luna's efforts to console him about all his worries today. He felt so lucky to have a sister who was able to guide him though this to the best of her ability. For her endeavor in doing all that for him, he embraced her.

"Thank you so much, Luna. I think I'm beginning to feel a little better right now." He said in relief.

Luna smiled and embraced her brother again in response, "You're welcome, Linc. It was the least I can do for you after the rough day you've put yourself through."

After a few moments in each other's arms, they parted away.

"Now, what do you say we try to squeeze in a little bit of fun in what's left of this trip, huh?" Luna said with another smile.

Lincoln nodded happily, "Yeah, I'd like that."

Happy with the turnaround that her brother appeared to have gone through, Luna released a chuckle as she also ruffled his hair, then she helped lead him back to their family.

* * *

Back over at the picnic table, the rest of the family were waiting with a mix of anxiety and anticipation until they heard a familiar voice.

"Yo, dudes! Look who I found!"

Emerging from the woods was Luna, followed by Lincoln just right behind her, eliciting welcoming cheers and shouts from everyone. When both of them arrived, Lincoln was immediately met with concerns from his parents.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay, Lincoln!" Rita said, kneeling down to his level and hugging him.

"Yeah, we were worried about you, kiddo." Lynn Sr. added, "But now I have to wonder as to why you disappeared on us like that."

Lincoln sighed as frown formed on his face, "I guess...I wanted to give everyone a break from all my complaining about all the bad stuff that could've happened because of Lucy's fortune. But I guess it was all for nothing as Luna helped me understand. Anyway, I'm really sorry if I got on your nerves or you were upset at me."

"Hey now, I'd say we weren't necessarily upset with you, Lincoln." Luan said.

"Huh? You weren't?" Lincoln asked.

"No way, Linky!" Leni adamantly expressed, "We were totes concerned about you, especially while you were gone just now!"

A slew of similar overlapping statements from everyone else were coming forth, which made Lincoln feel relieved, but in Luna's case, she was getting very confused.

"Wait a sec, you dudes actually_ were_ worried about Linc?" Luna asked in bewilderment, "But just before I went to nab him, you were all ragging about stuff he'd been fretting over. Didn't seem like you cared then."

"Or maybe in that instance we were having a moment in venting, because maybe those things did annoy us just a _little_ bit." Lynn said with a touch of chafe, but shifted over to a softer tone, "But sure, of course we had our worries about Lincoln and maybe we didn't do our best in expressing them or finding the right time to do so."

"Yeah, and this might only be me speaking, but I didn't really say much because I was hoping Lincoln would learn on his own that he was literally going on and on over nothing at all. But I guess you were too overly eager to tell him that yourself I suppose, Luna?" Lori opined.

Luna was now frowning and began rubbing the back of her neck ashamedly, "Oh, wow...I didn't know. Guess it's my turn to feel sorry now, 'cause here I thought you didn't care at all about how our bro felt when you actually did. I misjudged you all and I'm sorry about that. Maybe I should've stayed quiet and he'd work things out eventually..."

Sensing her sister's guilt, and feeling a little of her own, Lori stood up and went over to Luna, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay, Luna. We probably weren't that much better for not saying much of anything like Lynn suggested. Also, even though I think it'd been better for Lincoln to learn such a lesson on his own, you trying to be a good big sister in explaining things about this whole fortune stuff to him is something still worth admiring I'd say." She said.

Luna gave her older sister a little smile, then she looked down to see Lincoln hugging her waist and looking up at her with his own appreciative smile.

"Looks like he feels the same way, too." Lori observed with a smirk.

* * *

Another hour had passed and the family's trip had come to a close. Everyone appeared to have a great time, except perhaps for Lisa, who was deflated when she found out that the alleged scientific discovery of hers of a new species was in fact a complete hoax made up by the park ranger in order to boost the flagging attendance of the state park.

By contrast, Lincoln came away in the end positively pleased compared to how he was at the beginning of this trip. His prior fears of an impending doom had been drained away and it was all because of the assistance of Luna. As a result of her help, he was in a much better state of mind and made him completely forget all about that dreadful fortune. Like she had suggested to him, this whole fortune business likely was nothing more than a mental game being played within him and having Luna clarify that allowed Lincoln to be of a more clear mind. Also, Luna herself was relieved upon learning their sisters were in fact worried about him like she was and how she'll not try questioning something like that again.

While most of the family had begun piling back into Vanzilla, Luna and Lincoln were taking a moment in sitting together close to a smaller lake near the park's entrance way while they tossed some stones into the water and skipped some of the more flatter ones they found. This little moment of bonding would be interrupted though when they heard Lori calling out for them.

"Luna, Lincoln, wherever you two are, let's go! We're literally about to start leaving!"

"Well, I guess that's our cue for us to depart, would you say?" Luna said as she turned to her brother.

"Yeah, I suppose." Lincoln agreed.

They both stood on up and were about to regroup with the rest of the family, but not before Lincoln went over and hugged Luna once more.

"I want to thank you again for helping me out, Luna. After my admitted self-induced paranoia, I'm glad you were able to set me straight by knocking a little sense into me." He said gratefully.

Luna smiled as she returned the hug, "No prob, Linc. Anything for you, dude."

After spending a few more seconds in the hug, they resumed in returning to their family.

"What a shame..." Luna said quietly.

"Huh? What was that, Luna?" Lincoln asked her.

"Oh, well, I was just thinking it's a shame we never got to see the geyser blow." Luna admitted with great disappointment, "You'll remember on the ride over here how hyped I was to see that and truthfully, that's the main reason I wanted to come here in the first place."

But no sooner did she say that did both Luna and Lincoln sense a sudden rumbling sensation, and upon looking up and beyond the treeline in the distance did both of them see that very geyser, the one said to be dormant for many years, erupting forcefully, much to their amazement.

"Whoa! How rad is that, bro?!" Luna stated in wonderment.

"You're telling me!" Lincoln shouted with glee, "This is awesome!"

They were only able to observe the geyser for just a few seconds before they had to reluctantly turn around and depart in favor of getting back to their family, lest they keep them waiting any longer. Still, those seconds in time were going to be ones they'll never forget, especially knowing it was something they saw together.

Upon finally returning to and getting inside Vanzilla, Luna and Lincoln were about to regale their amazing sight, only to see all of their sisters fast asleep by now. For the time being, they figured it'd be best to simply let them rest and tell them everything later on.

Feeling a bit tired herself, Luna reached over for her headphones to listen to some relaxing tunes as she leaned against the window to grab a little shut eye. Not too long after that, though, she felt some pressure being applied onto her shoulder. She looked over and saw that the pressure was from Lincoln resting his head on her shoulder as he too was beginning to drift into sleep, but not before he looked up at her and mouthed out something.

"What was that, little bro?" Luna asked softly, pulling her headphones away for a moment to hear him better.

"I said 'I love you, Luna'." Lincoln whispered in response with a grin, "You already know that for sure, but after today, I wanted to really emphasize it even more."

"Aw, much appreciated." Luna happily said, "Love you back, Lincoln, as always."

With a little yawn, Lincoln snuggled his head alongside his big sister's shoulder again and slowly went to sleep. Smiling over this adorable sight, Luna put her arm around his neck and shoulders, lightly kissed him on the side of his head and then pulled her little brother a bit closer against her as she put her headphones back on.

Lincoln sighed happily, his day not ending truly bad at all and he owed it all to Luna, the sister who took it upon herself to make him see how meaningless a bad fortune could actually be and how he'll be grateful for her making him come to that realization.

* * *

**And there you have it. Now, as I said earlier, there's some things I'll clarify with regards to this one.**

**First, no, I did not choose Luna as the sister to talk things over with Lincoln on the commonly held notion that she is the one who Lincoln has the best bond with. Instead, it's because personally I felt she'd work out the best in the context of both this story and the episode it's based on. For instance, as you may recall in "Raw Deal", Luna was the only other sibling besides Lincoln who wanted to see the geyser blow and that's why had them both witness it together here. _But..._that being said, for the purposes of disclosure, they are my personal favorite sibling pair of the bunch, but I don't want anyone to think that it affect my decision here in this case.**

**Next, no, I wasn't trying to make the rest of the sisters seem uncaring at first to make Luna look better by comparison. I think they had every right to be somewhat annoyed at Lincoln's antics in the context of this story, while at the same time having a bit of worries that they did eventually show.**

**Thirdly, yes, I'll concede that I made Luna basically give out a similar lesson to Lincoln as the one he ultimately learned himself in "Raw Deal", which I did think it was good that he did. Here, I just simply made so that Lincoln didn't think about such a lesson himself and got a needed comforting push to realize it. **

**Okay, that's all that needed to be said. If you want, go ahead and initiate with the feedback and reviewing if you'd like and I'll be back again very soon.**


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